Quantum mechanics could explain why DNA can spontaneously mutate uniofsurrey CommsPhys
structure discovered in 1952 by James Watson and Francis Crick based on the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.
The team, part of Surrey's research program in the exciting new field of quantum biology, have shown that this modification in the bonds between the DNA strands is far more prevalent than has hitherto been thought. The protons can easily jump from their usual site on one side of an energy barrier to land on the other side.
In their study, the authors determine that the local cellular environment causes the protons, which behave like spread out waves, to be thermally activated and encouraged through the energy barrier. In fact, the protons are found to be continuously and very rapidly tunneling back and forth between the two strands. Then, when the DNA is cleaved into its separate strands, some of the protons are caught on the wrong side, leading to an error.
Dr. Slocombe's work at the Surrey's Leverhulme Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Center was supervised by Prof Jim Al-Khalili and Dr. Marco Sacchi .
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